The Big Black Swatch & Shade Post

This post is in lieu of a finish to the Juvia's Place review. No need to go on beating that dead horse. In the meantime (and since even being the hermit I am, this lockdown is crazy) I thought I would do a swatch post that includes the 2 new Juvia shades.

It's nice that a lot of the established cosmetic brands are adding shades for "deeper" skin tones. New brands seem to be popping up all the time (like Juvia's Place). Still, finding an affordable and appropriate shade of foundation is tough for a lot of us. I know ladies of all races and colors who have almost as hard a time as I do in trying to find something that works with their peach- or olive-hued tones. If you can't pull off one of the basic shades - porcelain, ivory, buff, light, tan, medium, "deep", chocolate, almond, or some variation of "toast" - then you have to be the Indiana Jones of the makeup world.

These are some arm and face swatches of all the shades I have lying around. I throw nothing out so I have stuff from 4 years ago. Don't judge me!

Just so you know:

• I photographed my leg in the natural light of my home. (ceiling and floor lamps)
• I applied a light primer and nothing else other than the moisturizer I already had on  
• I did not apply any other powders or setting products
• I used a makeup spatula to apply (cleaning after each use)
• I ran a line of the Nars shade along the top so you can compare it to each of the other shades.

These are the ones taken a couple of minutes after applying all the swatches:

sorry for the bad cropping
see names and shades below

It's easy to see that the Khartoum, Ebony, Mali, and Bronze 8 shades are ones I can work best with. The others can be used, I suppose, for highlighting, contouring, and blending to lighten or darken other shades.

This is after I lay a paper towel over them and did a light blotting:

You can barely tell the Nars from my skin. Perfect.

This is after I have let the makeup rest and completely set for about 5 minutes

I tried to keep the camera the same distance away but there could be some variation. You get the idea though.

By the way, this is the wonderful primer I used. It was sent as a full-size sample (yay) from Tryspree and I will be buying more when I am finished with the jar.

Hard Candy Primer Balm

If you are always on the lookout for shades in "deep" tones, here are some that I have considered. With a couple of exceptions, they are affordably priced and seem to come in a good variety of deep shades. And, since I was only looking at shades, you would have to judge for yourself how good they are as far as wear and staying power. The links are to where I found the item and not always the brand site.

Black OpalTrue Color

NYXBorn to Glow

MaybellineFit Me

MilaniConceal & Perfect

 

e.l.f.Flawless Finish

I did notice that Target carries quite a range of brands with diverse shades. Also, the site has a "foundation guide" to help locate suitable brands on their site with your shade range.

Actually, once I started searching, I found quite a few brands with "deep" shade choices. You have probably heard of most, but I think at least a couple will be new for you.

Here are some with prices in the mid to higher range - depending on what your budget is. I'm too tired to do links for all of them but hit up Google.

• Uoma Beauty (totally new to me)
• Fenty (Rhianna's gig so I won't bother with it. Personal bias.)
• Il Mikiage (see this a lot on social media platforms)
• ColourPop (I've seen this on Influenster)
• Black Up (I had one of their foundations in a near-matching shade for my skin. Good foundation as long as you get a match.)
• Urban Decay
• Nars (of course)
• Becca 
• Marc Jacobs (who knew?)

• Lancome (love theirs but it's pricey for me at around $45)
• Hue Noir (another totally new one for me)
• MAC
• Makeup Forever
• Black Radiance (of course)
• Flori Roberts (I used to love their Gold perfume but it's no longer made)

The name of the last one I want to mention gives me the creeps but I love that they seem to have a wide range of shades. It's called Flesh Beauty. See what I mean? Anyway... The prices are mid-range ($32 for a foundation) but they offer free shipping. If you sign up for their mailing list, you get a discount on your first order. 

Believe it or not, there are more I could have listed but I got tired.

Hope this helped.

Peace
--Free

**MAKEUP** Swatches on Skin (dark foundations)

Since I have said over and over that I should do this, I've decided to go all Nike on y'all and just do it.

(By the way, ladies, even though I'm posting about darker foundations, I believe that each of the products covers ,most skin tones from the palest to the deepest. Just wanted to toss that in because the makeup struggle is real, no matter what your shade!)

The shades are:

1. * BH Cosmetics Complexion Collection (shade - Deep Espresso)
2.  Mary Kay's Timewise Luminous Wear (shade - Bronze 8)
3.  *Black Radiance' Complexion Perfection (shade - 8435 Ebony)
4.  *NARS' Sheer Glow (shade - Khartoum/Dark4)
5.  *Black Opal's True Color Pore Perfecting (shade - Ebony Brown)
6. Mary Kay CC Cream/sunscreen SPF15 (shade - Deep)

I starred my faves, but I won't count on Black Radiance not to discontinue the Ebony shade. The Mary Kay products were my late sister's and she loved the way the looked and made her skin feel. I might have to see about some shades that suit me.

Now, here is how these looked against my skin in full-on sunlight:

#1 shade is bottom, #6 is top by eye

By the way, to help with which shade is which, #1 on the list is on the bottom part of my face while #6 is the first and nearest my eye. I lost track when I was adding the numbers onto the photos!

Keep in mind that I didn't blend these, but just wiped them on to give you an idea of what the shades looked like. When my faves are blended, they are pretty flawless. Even the too-light Mary Kay Luminous Wear doesn't look outrageous if I blend it in. That's why I want to try one of the darker shades from the brand.

When I moved back a bit so that my face was still getting a lot of sunlight but not as direct, this is what the swatches looked like.

This is the reason I want to point out is that, even when a shade is too light (or orange/red/whatever), there can still be some use for it. I like to highlight the area just over and under the outer parts of my eyebrows with a slightly light shade. Sometimes, I will use a lighter shade as an eyeshadow.  Also, everything depends on lighting, lighting, lighting. You think I'm lying? Just go look at how some folks prove that "ugly" can be about the angle (or lighting) of a shot. Big thanks to Sad and Useless for the post. Lifted my esteem a notch.

The next photos are of the swatches on my arm held at different angles. This was done under indoor lighting - or "office" lighting since I had a couple of computer lights on.

Most days, I don't go all overboard with my makeup. Let me back up and admit something: most days I only half-step it when doing my makeup. Sometimes, all I'll bother with is some lip pretties (stain, stick or gloss), but usually, I do light foundation, mascara, and the lip pretties. That's because I'm getting older and am not as confident as I used to be. There was a time when I went totally barefaced and strutted around like my poo didn't p.u. It's nice when I find a shade that works to look natural and light.

Anyway, I hope that these photos help to give some of you all ideas for shades you might be wondering about.

Next time around, maybe I will show some of the lip pretties I love.

Peace
--Free